ALLEN'S NATURALIST'S LIBRARY. 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
THE GULLS. ORDER LARIFORMES. 
Thkse birds, though at first sight very different in appearance 
troni the Plovers, are really allied to them. They possess cha- 
J^acters, external and internal, which indicate close affinity ; but 
are easily recognised by the structure of their feet, the 
fjtills being entirely web-footed, the Plovers not. The eggs, 
lowever, of some of the smaller Terns are almost indi.stinguish- 
ab e from some of the Plovers’ eggs, and not only in the 
colour of the latter, but in the form of the nest, there is so 
much similarity that it is impossible to deny the close 
relationship of Terns and Plovers. The latest, and at the 
^me time the greatest, authority on the Lariformes, Mr. 
Howard Saunders, has given the following characters for the 
I in the British Museum “ Catalogue of Birds ” : — 'Phe 
pa ate is “ schizognathous ” or split ; the na.sa]s schizorhinal. 
n the wing the fifth secondary is wanting, and the number of 
''crtebrK is fifteen. The young are hatched covered 
of able to run about in a few hours. Instead 
rt, which form the complement of those of the 
.. the number laid by the Gulls and Terns 
exceeds three. The Gulls are absolutely cosmopolitan 
conta'i'n'^’ divided into two families, the LaridcB, 
The Gulls and Terns, and the Stercorariidee, or Skuas, 
is seen ^ wax-like base to the bill, such as 
cere. The Prey and Parrots, but the Laridce have no 
^ reast-bone in the Gulls and Terns has two notches 
